SuperSport coach lauds 'good, honest team'

United, chasing their fourth league title in five seasons, kept their championship hopes alive, moving within one point of Orlando Pirates who led the standings ahead of the weekend fixtures.

“Chiefs should have got a draw, that’s for sure, but at the end of the day you have to take your chances,” Hunt said.

“They [Chiefs] were a bit unfortunate near the end. They hit the crossbar and they should have scored.
Sometimes you need a little bit of that in football and we had seven games where we never scored a goal, so sometimes it works for you in these situations.”

Hunt went on to laud the attitude of his charges.

“It was an honest performance from us. We’re a good, honest team,” he said.

“We work hard, nothing flashy, no brilliance, but that’s how you win situations.”

After going two goals down just after half-time, Chiefs clawed their way back into the match with a goal in the 61st minute as they started to put pressure on the visitors.

“The result was important for us in our situation,” Hunt said.

“I thought the first half we did well, and then we got the second goal and we could have killed the game [off] a little bit more, which we didn’t.”

Despite his side putting up a challenge in a close title race, Hunt believed other teams were favoured for the league trophy.

“We showed a little lack of legs, but we’re lacking players,” he said.

“We’re so short of staff at the moment in certain positions. You’ve gotta still favour Sundowns and Pirates with their squad of players.

“Our squad is thin, but we’ll keep going.” He hoped his outfit would produce a better finish than they had in previous seasons.

“When we won the league three times we finished so badly in the last five games.

“Maybe we’ll finish strong this time.”

Hunt also lashed out at Kermit Erasmus—who scored the spectacular long-range winner for SuperSport a minute after he struck a poor free-kick from a good position—for his inconsistency.

“He’s the most frustrating player in the world and you want to strangle him every day,” he said.

“He’s got so much ability but he hasn’t fulfilled it. He doesn’t work hard enough. We all know that.

“He’s got to work harder off the ball and he’s got to do his defending and he doesn’t do that. But he can score goals like that. He’s got fantastic talent but you’ve got to do it every week, which he doesn’t, and he knows that.”

Chiefs fans voiced their frustration after the match as they threw litter on to the field and police officers arrived to prevent the tension from escalating.

A small number of spectators directed angry gestures towards coaching staff who were being interviewed by a television crew, and the cover for the players’ tunnel had to be extended so the coaching staff could make their way off the field.